Debanding device for rolled coils



April 16, 1968 R. c. DE CHELLIS DEBANDING DEVICE FOR ROLLED COILS '2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 9, 1966 WTIWH INVENTOR. 2/0/4406. 0.4- 6/1 1521 /5 ATTOAA/E Filed March 9, 1966 R. c. DE CHELLIS 3,377,687

DEBANDING .DEVICE FOR ROLLED COILS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,377,687 DEBANDING DEVICE FOR ROLLED COILS Richard Carmen De Chellis, Pittsburgh, Pa assignor to United Engineering and Foundry Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Mar. 9, 1966, Ser. No. 532,913 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 26, 1965, 13,055/ 65 Claims. (ill. 29-200) The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically removing a band from a coil of metallic strip preparatory to the leading end thereof being fed into a coil processing apparatus.

In the processing of metallic coils of strip, say, for example, by tandem cold reduction mill, it is customary to bring the coils to the mill wherein the coils have bands tightly secured around their outer peripheries which must be removed before the coil can be uncoiled. These bands in the past have been removed by means of a workman whoemploys a hand shear or similar instrument to sever the band after the coil has been arranged in front of the mill and prior to the time the mill is ready to receive the leading end of the coil. Most modern mills, however, are being designed for automatic handling, positioning and preparing of the coil and for which reason the manual removal of the bands cannot be employed.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a fully automatic means for removing the band from a coil and disposing of the band in a manner that will not in any way delay the processing of the coil.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide in combination with means for supporting and raising a coil, a means for breaking the band, after which the band will be automatically entered into a chute and conveyed away from the coil.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a power driven roller for engaging simultaneously the band and coil, which roller will serve the dual purpose of feeding the strip and band, wherein the band will be separated from the coil and conveyed away while the strip itself is fed away from its body.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a means for receiving the broken band comprising a pair of pinch rolls and driving means for said rolls having the characteristic of being able to allow the rolls to discontinue their driving effect on the band should the movement of the band be interrupted.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide in combination with a means for removing the bands from a coil, means for conveying the broken band away from the coil into a scrap chopper where the band will be continuously cut into smaller lengths and discharged to a collecting area, whereby after a certain amount of scrap has been accumulated, it can be conveniently removed.

These Objects and advantages, as well as others, will be better appreciated when the following description is read in light of the accompanying drawings of which:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional elevational view taken along lines I-I of FIGURE 2 of a preferred form of the present invention, and

FIGURE 2 is a plan view taken along lines II-II of FIGURE 1.

With reference to FIGURES l and 2, there is shown a coil C having around its outer periphery a tight encircling band B, the coil being supported by two spaced-apart rolls 10 and 11, driven by motors 11a and 11b which form part of a coil elevator including a piston cylinder assembly 11c provided to raise the rolls and hence the coil. Above the rolls it) and 11 there is provided a hold-down roller 12 having its end rotatably mounted in brackets 13. These brackets form part of a rigid overhung frame 3,377,687 Patented Apr. 16, 1968 "ice assembly 17 which includes parallel-spaced plates 14 and 15. The plate 14 supports a motor 16 which is connected to the roller 12 by a chain 16a and serves to rotate the roller in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Pairs of lower links 18 are pivotally connected at one end to the plate 14 and at the other end the links are pivotally carried by a frame 19. A second series of links 21 arranged parallel to the links 18 are provided, being connected at their outer ends to an upward extension of the brackets 13 and at their inner end to the frame 1?. By referring to FIGURE 1 it will be noted that the frame 19 is sli'dably supported on a base 20 for horizontal movement relative to the coil C.

Adjacent to the roller 12 and afiixed to the plate 15 there is provided a vertical tubular shaped guide 23 in which there is received a bladeholder 24 to which there is secured a blade 25. The bladeholder is vertically movable relative to the frame 23 for which. purpose it is connected to an arm 26 which, in turn, is connected to the rod end of a piston cylinder assembly 27; the cylinder itself being mounted on the plate 15. lDirectly above the upper end of the bladeholder 24 and in line therewith there is a hammerhead 23 which is connected to a piston cylinder assembly 29, the cylinder being carried by a bracket 31 secured to the plate 15. By referring to FIG- URE 1 it can be appreciated that the arrangement between the holder 24 and the head 28 is such that on operation of the cylinder assembly 29 the head 28 is accelerated downwardly and strikes the holder 24, which has been previously lowered to a position where the blade 25 is adjacent the band B, to cause the blade to sever the band that was secured around the coil C. To accomplish this, it will be appreciated that the bands for the coils are arranged so as to always present themselves under the blade 25 which is wider than the width of the bands.

It should be mentioned at this time that the overhung frame assembly 17, including the roller 12, is adjustable in a vertical direction, relative to the frame 19 about the pivotally mounted links 18 and 21. The adjustment is accomplished by employing a piston cylinder assembly 32 which is carried by the frame 19, having its rod endconnected to the plate 14 by virtue of a bracket 33, this bracket also serving as the intermediate connecting means between the links 18 and the plate 14. Operation of the piston cylinder assembly 32 vertically positions the frame assembly 17 and the roller 12 whereby the roller is positioned to contact the band B as well as the coil C.

Returning to the vicinity of the blade 25, it will be seen that in close proximity to the blade when the latter is in its extended position, as shown in phantom in FIG- URE 1, there is arranged a rigid chute 34- which has an enlarged passageway sufiicient to receive the maximum width band. The chute 34, as shown, takes the form somewhat like an S and is arranged to convey the band away from the top of the coil. At the lower end of the chute there is provided a pair of air motor driven pinch rolls 35 and 36 between which the band is directed and which serve to urge the band up through the remaining length of the chute.

The chute and rolls are adjustably mounted and for which purpose they are connected by a bracket 37 which has vertical projections which restrain the bracket and chute to a vertical movement. These bracket projections are received between vertical guide plates 38 and 39 that form part of the frame 19. A piston cylinder assembly 41 secured to the upper end of the guide plates 38 and 39 has its rod end connected to the bracket 37 for vertically adjusting the chute 34 relative to the band and into and out of an operative band-receiving position. At the top of the chute there is mounted on the frame 19 a scarp chopper 42 into which the band is directed and which may take the form of any one of several commercial scrap chopping units, such as that illustrated in US. Patent No. 2,500,722 which issued to E. Reed On Mar. 14, 1950. The bands, upon being cut into short lengths by the scrap chopper, will fall into a collecting station 43 where they can be removed at any convenient time.

It should be noted that the holddown roller 12 and the pinch rolls 35 and 36 are convered with rubber so as to enable them to have the maximum driving effect on the strip and band. It is also important to note that the air motor drives for the pinch rolls 35 and 36 will enable the motors to stall out, when the holddown roller 12 is not advancing the strip at a speed commensurate with the speeds of the rolls 35 and 36 after the band is broken. While not a part of the present invention, since the drawing illustrates a portion of the equipment to which the strip is fed, brief mention will be made of this equipment. In this regard it will be noted the horizontally disposed guide 44 that serves both to peel the leading end of the strip from the coil and support it in its passage to a processing unit 45, including the first of several strip feeding and bending rolls.

A brief explanation of the aforesaid described apparatus will now be given. Let it be assumed that a coil C is supported by the rolls and 11 of the elevator and that it has been raised to the position shown in the drawing. As previously mentioned, the holddown roller 12 can be positioned by operating the piston cylinder assembly 32 to accommodate any change in the height of the coils due to their varying diameters. As mentioned before, the band B will be located in the coils so that it will fall directly under the blade of the debanding apparatus. After roller 12 contacts the coil and band, the piston cylinder 29 will be operated to cause the hammerhead 28 to strike the bladeholder 24, which has been previously lowered by operation of piston cylinder assembly 27, and cause the blade 25 to sever the band. Once this occurs the piston cylinder assembly 27 will raise the blade 25 to its inoperative position, the holddown roller 12 will be operated to feed the strip and band in a direction towards the processing equipment. It should be mentioned that the rolls 10 and 11 will have been previously rotated so as to maintain the end of the strip somewhere between the roller 12 and the guide 44 which supports the strip passing to the processin apparatus. Thus, on rotation of the roller 12, the front end of the band will be caused to enter the chute 34 and pinch rolls 35 and 36 which have been lowered by the piston cylinder assembly 41 to the position shown in FIGURE 1. With the chute in this position, the band B will be deflected away from the coil C by the pressing and drawing action of the roller 12 and at the same time the leading end of the strip will be fed over the guide 44 to the processing equipment 45. Should the speed of the roller 12 not match the speed of the pinch rolls 35 and 36, the air motors driving the pinch rolls will assume a stalled condition until a slack in the band has developed between the pinch rolls and roller 12 enabling them to further drive the band into the chute 34. Once the leading end of the band passes out of the upper end of the chute 34, it will be received by the scrap chopper 42 and severed into short lengths which then fall into a collecting station 43. The strip, in the meantime, will have been fed into the processing unit. This will normally involve more than a complete convolution which will assure that by the time the roller 12 stops the forward advancement of the strip the entire band will have passed under the roller 12 and into the chute 34. In the case where a small coil is being processed the roller 12 can be raised by operation of the piston cylinder assembly 32 and the pinion rolls 35 and 36 will feed the remainder of the band into the chute for its quick and automatic disposition.

In the normal case, after the band has been removed from the coil, the piston cylinder assembly 32 is operated to raise the frame assembly 17 and thereby the roller 12 from the coil. The chute 34 and pinch rolls 35 and 36 are then retracted from their operative position by operation of the piston cylinder assembly 41 to a position indicated by phantom lines in FIGURE 1. As previously indicated, the frame 13 is slidably supported on the base 20 whereby the frame 19 and the frame assembly 17 including the roller 12, blade 25, chute 34 and scrap chopper 42 may be remotely positioned from the coil to facilitate the uncoiling of the strip.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that instead of the pneumatic chisel or blade shown that a rotary saw or scissor-type pinch bar device could be substituted, along with making other changes to the illustrated arrangement without departing from the scope of the present invention.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for removing tightly encircling bands from the peripheries of coils of material, such as, coils of metallic rolled strip comprising:

a pair of rollers for rotatably supporting a banded coil while it is being unwound and a band severing device spaced from said pair of rollers including a cutting instrument and a third roller, said third roller arranged to engage a portion of a coil when coil is supported by said pair of rollers,

means for causing relative movement between said pair of rollers and said third roller to bring said coil into close proximity to said cutting instrument and into engagement with said third roller,

means for causing said cutting instrument to engage the band to sever it from the coil when in said position of close proximity, and

means for causing said coil and band to be unwound in the same direction.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said band severing device includes a band cutting tool offset relative to the axis of a coil supported by said pair of rollers towards the side on which a coil and band are unwound.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, including means for driving said third roller, whereby both the strip and band are caused to be unwound from a coil. 1

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, including a chute arranged on the side of the axis of a coil on which the band and strip are unwound for receiving the leading end of the band after it has been severed and directing it away from the strip while the strip is being fed away from a coil, and

shearing means located adjacent the other end of said chute for receiving said band and cutting it into predetermined lengths and a gathering station for receiving the sheared lengths of the band.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said pair of rollers are moved towards the third roller a fixed distance and wherein said third roller and cutting instrument are carried 'by a movable frame, and

means for moving the frame relative to said pair of rollers so that the said third roller can be brought into contact with coils having varying diameters.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said cutting instrument is slidably received in guides carried by said frame and includes a chisel having an enlarged upper end,

high energy means carried by said frame above said chisel, and

means for operating said high energy means to cause it to strike the chisel and force it downward into contact with the band of a coil.

7. An apparatus according to claim 4, including a pair of pinc-h rolls mounted in the chute and between its opposite ends for engaging a band received by said chute, and

means for driving said pinch rolls, said driving means being characterized by the fact that in the event there exists an unslackened condition between the pinch rolls and the third roller, said drive will automatically assume a non-driving condition.

8. An apparatus according to claim 4, including a frame for carrying said third roller, cutting instrument and chute, and

means for movably mounting said frame so that the frame can be moved into and out of a position above said pair of rollers.

9. An apparatus according to claim 4 comprising:

means for receiving the strip uncoiled from said pair of rollers which includes means for causing said strip to be fed in a horizontal direction from said apparatus.

10. An apparatus according to claim 4 comprising:

means for moving said chute toward-s and away from said pair of rollers,

means for moving said chisel relative to said high energy means, and means for driving said pair of rollers.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Forman 83--923 X Van Riper 83-54 X Schneider 29-200 Burger 8354 X Somerville 83-54 X Lane.

ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner. 

1. AN APPARATUS FOR REMOVING TIGHTLY ENCIRCLING BANDS FROM THE PERIPHERIES OF COILS OF MATERIAL, SUCH AS, COILS OF METALLIC ROLLED STRIP COMPRISING: A PAIR OF ROLLERS FOR ROTATABLY SUPPORTING A BANDED COIL WHILE IT IS BEING UNWOUND AND A BAND SEVERING DEVICE SPACED FROM SAID PAIR OF ROLLERS INCLUDING A CUTTING INSTRUMENT AND A THIRD ROLLER, SAID THIRD ROLLER ARRANGED TO ENGAGE A PORTION OF A COIL WHEN COIL IS SUPPORTED BY SAID PAIR OF ROLLERS, MEANS FOR CAUSING RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN SAID PAIR OF ROLLERS AND SAID THIRD ROLLER TO BRING SAID COIL INTO CLOSE PROXIMITY TO SAID CUTTING INSTRUMENT AND INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID THIRD ROLLER, MEANS FOR CAUSING SAID CUTTING INSTRUMENT TO ENGAGE THE BAND TO SEVER IT FROM THE COIL WHEN IN SAID POSITION OF CLOSE PROXIMITY, AND MEANS FOR CAUSING SAID COIL AND BAND TO BE UNWOUND IN THE SAME DIRECTION. 